First Knuth League Robotics Meet Brings Hundreds to Arlington High School

Today from 1230PM to almost 600PM, 15 Teams from North Snohomish, Skagit County and Bellingham, and even from one team from Vancouver, Canada joined in the Arlington High School.  What drew these young people armed with metal and motors, gears and gyros, sensors and common sense to the mecca that is the commons area  at AHS?  They came to match wits and bits in competition that brings back nostalgic moments from the Battle Bots TV series of 2000-2002.  When that series was running, most of the students competing today would not yet have entered school.  But they were here today, and here to play.

Teams consisting of Middle and High School students, took turns placing ther metallic masterpieces in a plexiglass walled arena.  The game, "Cascade Effect" is the revealed competition from US First Robotics this year, and challenges teams to navigate up and down ramps, knock balls down, and then like every good teenager should, pick them back up.  Each team was paired with another and faced off against a second pair trying to score as many points as humanly , well roboticly possible.  They laughed, they cried, and they planned for the next battle minutes after finishing the previous one.  Each team was able to compete in 8 separate 2 minutes 30 second matches.

In between rounds teams would collaborate with their previous ally, or scout out their next opposition.  They would make comments about how cool one team's idea was, as they counted bolts and screws to see what it would take to add a novel attachment to their own design.  They shared information, tools, batteries, glasses, and all in the name of "Gracious Profressionalism", a hallmark of the program.

Finally at the end of the day, points were tallied up, tool boxes packed up, wifi routers rested, and with drained batteries and charged ideas of tomorrow they left planning for the next time fate would bring them together again.

High thanks to the Arlington High School, home of the Eagles for hosting the event.  Praise and appreciation to the volunteers and refs for their time and dedication, which make these events a success.  If you are afraid you missed it, and want to know more, our next competition will be on Dec 13. 2014 and admission is free to watch.  If you are interested in starting up a team in your area and/or want to become involved with one already there, you can find more information calling and asking your High school, or contacting US First on their page or Washington's division at FirstWA.

We hope to see you at the next event on Dec 13, so until then, keep your batteries charged along with your imagination, Wheels down and heads up as you work on the next big thing.

If you are interested in volunteering, donating or learning more, and can't find the answer, I may not know it right off but I welcome your questions and will happily get you going in the right direction.

Team 9246 built and operates an Omni-Robot,  Quad motor/wheel, single motor scissor lift, single motor arm, dual servo grasping hand and single servo gate release.  Programming in Robot C 4.27, processing controlled by a Lego NXT brick, and communications via a Samantha Module. Code Name: Humpty  Why: Because he kind of looks like a dump truck, is always losing pieces, and all the kings horses, women and men seem to always putting him back together.

If you attended the event I invite your pictures, and as we are new, your comments and posts are welcome.